Commission Vice-President Siim Kallas, responsible for transport, will present at this year’s Aeronautical Days on 30 March 2011 in Madrid a new long-term vision prepared by a high-level group on aviation and aeronautics research. The report is a first follow-up to some of the measures regarding aviation that had been put forward in the White Paper on Transport, adopted on 28 March 2011.

The vision for 2050 lays out how and where the European research priorities should be set to bring clear EU-added value, so as to preserve EU growth and competitiveness worldwide, whilst meeting market needs as well as energy and environmental challenges. The report was prepared for Commissioners Kallas and Geoghegan-Quinn, responsible for research and innovation, by representatives from the infrastructure, vehicle, operation, fuel and research sectors. The high-level group on aviation and aeronautics research was created in December 2010 and the central message of the report is to promote global leadership of the European industry and a competitive, clean, safe and secure aviation by 2050, with citizens' and society's needs at the heart of the strategy.

The 2011 Aerodays will bring together aeronautics stakeholders, ministries, agencies and research & development centres from all across Europe and overseas to network, present their latest research results and discuss common future R&D projects. Organised by the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) in Spain and the European Commission, the 2011 Aerodays provide an opportunity to present and disseminate information about EU-funded results of research and technological development activities, in view of creating a Single European Sky and a European Research Area and of finding innovative approaches to sustainable aviation in a global environment.